Authorities can't find anyone who knows S.J. man killed in accident

STOCKTON - Late in August, a man who had been living in Stockton was in a van bound for Southern California.

Jennifer Torres

STOCKTON - Late in August, a man who had been living in Stockton was in a van bound for Southern California.

The van crashed near Bakersfield. The man was killed.

His name was Jose Luis Martinez, but he also used the name Alfredo Ayala. He was 32. Authorities have not been able to find his family.

"He did live in Stockton; he has previously lived in Dinuba," said Dawn Ratliff, supervising deputy coroner for the Kern County Sheriff's Office. "We have been unable to identify anybody that knows him. We have been unable to find any family or any name. I'm thinking that he is probably an immigrant, but I don't know that. ... We have not had a single call about him, not a single call."

Local advocates say it's a sad reality of the immigrant experience: Lives are anonymous, and sometimes, so are deaths.

According to a report from Kern County authorities, Martinez was a passenger in a van traveling southbound on Highway 99 on Aug. 24. About 2:30 a.m., the driver lost control, the van flipped, Martinez was ejected and died at the scene.

Passengers said he lived in Stockton.

Ratliff said the van belonged to the Missionary Church of the Disciples of Christ, which is based in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina.

Calls to church headquarters have not been returned.

The address listed as the organization's Stockton office is a home in a residential block of Phelps Road. It is painted white with red trim, and the Ten Commandments, carved into replica stone tablets, are nailed near the front door.

Knocks have been unanswered. The phone number listed for the home has been disconnected.

Marvin Samuels lives next door.

He looked at a photo of Martinez and said the man seemed familiar. His neighbors, he said, take in the homeless and poor as part of their church ministry. During the day, he said, they stand outside storefronts, dressed in white, preaching and asking for donations.

"So many people pass through and we don't know who they are," said Mario Gomez, of St. Mary's Interfaith Community Services. The nonprofit organization serves many migrant workers, and it's happened in the past that those workers die or are hurt, and no one knows whom to call, or even who they really are, Gomez said.